BASEBALL

BASEBALL; Gooden Suspended for 1995 After Additional Drug Tests

By MURRAY CHASS

Published: November 5, 1994

Dwight Gooden, continuing to test positive for cocaine use, received a career-jeopardizing penalty yesterday. A free agent who is no longer a member of the Mets, Gooden was suspended for the entire 1995 season.

The pitcher, whose career has been in decline, has 15 days left of a 60-day drug-related suspension that was interrupted by the players' strike and will serve an additional 168 days, the balance of the 1995 season, on the suspended list.

The commissioner's office, providing no details, said the latest suspension was for repeated violations of his after-care program and baseball's drug policy. A person involved in major league baseball said Gooden had failed "a bunch of tests" since he twice tested positive for cocaine use not long after emerging from drug rehabilitation in August.

After the positive tests in early September, baseball officials and doctors deliberately did not take further disciplinary steps; their object was to give Gooden a chance with his three tests a week to show why he should not suffer an additional significant penalty. But, the person said, "multiple tests" in the interim showed a continued use of cocaine.

The developments left a sad portrait of a young man who was a rookie of the year at age 19, a Cy Young award winner at age 20 and a member of the World Series champions at age 21 who now, as he approaches his 30th birthday (Nov. 16), faces a bleak future.

The suspension raised a question about Gooden's future in baseball. He last pitched June 24, meaning if he tries to come back in 1996, he will not have pitched for more than a season and a half. Given the decline in his effectiveness in recent seasons and the long layoff, the once legendary right-hander may not be able to rediscover the talent he would need to pitch in the majors.

There is a chance that the suspension could be reconsidered in July, but Gooden would have to demonstrate a dramatic turnaround in his life that he has not exhibited this year.

The Mets, for whom Gooden has played his entire 11-year career, did not address his future with them, although he declared his free agency Oct. 24.

"Right now our only concern is for Dwight Gooden the person," Joe McIlvaine, the Mets' executive vice president for baseball operations, said on a telephone conference call. "Any speculation about his baseball future is secondary and unimportant."

McIlvaine said the Mets have no intention of signing Gooden to a contract now. No other team can sign him, even though he's a free agent, because he is on the suspended list. Without a contract, he will receive no pay next year.

"It's a shame at the age of 29 his future is so much in doubt," McIlvaine said.

Jim Neader, Gooden's agent, said the pitcher declined to comment on the development.

"I met with him this morning for about an hour at his house," Neader said by telephone from Florida. "He knew there would be some more discipline coming, so it wasn't a surprise."

Neader, who did not discuss his client's drug use or failed tests, said Gooden was "determined to beat it," adding that his "primary goal is to get back to 100 percent health, continue his after-care program and continue to test."

The agent said there was a chance that Gooden would undergo further rehabilitation, "but I can't say that will occur."

Gooden, who underwent rehabilitation at Smithers Institute in Manhattan in 1987, spent 23 days at the Betty Ford Clinic in Palm Springs, Calif., following his 60-day suspension June 28. He left the clinic Aug. 14 and met with McIlvaine four days later in New York.

"We had a good conversation," McIlvaine recalled yesterday. "He was high on life and determined to get back to pitching again."

McIlvaine said he hadn't spoken to Gooden since, but said that Dr. Allan Lans, who is head of the Mets' employee assistance program, saw him in Florida. "He said it's kind of an up-and-down existence," McIlvaine related. "He's kind of struggling right now. If there's any way to help, I'd be the first person to do that. Obviously, it's been a rocky road for him."

McIlvaine, who has known Gooden since he was 17 years old, read a personal statement that was tough and compassionate at the same time.

"Dwight Gooden needs to get his life in order," the executive said. "He has been offered the best assistance baseball and the New York Mets have to give for his problem and has not taken advantage of this guidance and help. All of us who love this man urge him to get the help he needs, put God into his life and exhibit the same tenacity he showed on the mound, especially in the early years of his career, when a lead in the seventh inning meant a victory in the ninth. Dwight needs to demonstrate that same degree of competitiveness to defeat a far more insidious enemy that is sucking the life out of him both personally and professionally."

Gooden, who also missed seven weeks this past season because of a fractured toe, pitched only seven times. He finished with a 3-4 record, marking the third successive season he had a losing record.

The combination of his losing records and his earlier drug suspension made Gooden a questionable attraction as a free agent.

"He knew we were interested in talking to him about the '95 season if he was ready to go and obviously he's not," McIlvaine said.